Health News

Breast-Feeding May Help Obese Moms Lose Pregnancy Pounds

Breast-Feeding May Help Obese Moms Lose Pregnancy Pounds

09/04/14

THURSDAY, Sept. 4, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Breast-feeding may
help women lose their pregnancy weight and keep it off if they were
obese before they became pregnant, according to new research.

When women who were obese prior to becoming mothers followed
national breast-feeding recommendations, they weighed almost 18
pounds less than obese mothers who didn't breast-feed. If mothers
were overweight or had a normal weight before pregnancy, their
weight six years later didn't appear to be related to whether they
breast-fed their children or not.

While this study was able to link weight loss in obese mothers
and breast-feeding, it could not show that breast-feeding caused
the weight loss. Still, Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter, pediatrician and a
professor of pediatrics at Children's Regional Hospital at Cooper
University Health Care in Camden, N.J., said it's definitely
possible that it contributed.

"Breast-feeding not only burns extra calories but it also changes the metabolism through a series of hormonal effects required to lactate," Feldman-Winter said. "The full understanding of how breast-feeding leads to improvements in metabolism for both mother and her baby is incomplete, but there are multiple epidemiological studies showing the association."

Feldman-Winter, who reviewed the findings but was not involved
in the study, said that women who are not obese may also experience
a metabolic benefit from breast-feeding. But, because they are less
likely to try to lose much weight, a study would require a much
larger group of women to see the possible effects in weight loss
for those women, she said.

"It is not clear why we did not observe an association among normal-weight or overweight mothers," said the study's lead researcher, Andrea Sharma, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Many mothers choose to eat a healthier diet when breast-feeding, and through these dietary modifications, they may actually improve their overall diets and therefore achieve a more healthy weight," Feldman-Winter said.

Results of the study were published online Sept. 2 in the
journal
Pediatrics.

The researchers tracked more than 700 women six years after they
gave birth and compared weight retention between those who did and
did not breast-feed. Weight retention was the difference between
the women's pre-pregnancy weight and their weight six years after
giving birth.

Women were considered obese in this study if they had a body
mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is a measurement used to
estimate fat levels and assess whether a person has a healthy
weight for their height. A BMI below 25 is considered normal, and a
BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight.

At the time the women gave birth (2005 to 2007), the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that women exclusively
breast-feed at least four months and then continue breast-feeding
through 12 months, according to background information in the
study.

Almost a third of the women (29 percent) in the study
exclusively breast-fed for at least four months, and one in five
continued to breast-feed past 12 months. Eighteen percent of the
women did not breast-feed at all.

Only obese women who followed the recommendation to breast-feed
at least 12 months experienced the weight loss benefit. Obese
mothers who exclusively breast-fed at least four months but stopped
before one year weighed about 12 pounds less than their
non-breast-feeding counterparts, but this finding did not reach
statistical significance.

Given that few studies have examined breast-feeding and weight
retention for more than a one-year follow-up, this study is an
important contribution to understanding the long-term effects of
breast-feeding on the mother," wrote Laurence Grummer-Strawn and
his colleagues at the CDC in an editorial in
Pediatricsthat accompanied the study.

Both Sharma and Feldman-Winter stressed that the benefits of
breast-feeding for mothers and their babies extend far beyond a
mother's potential weight loss. Women who breast-feed have a
decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, ovarian
cancer and depression, she said.

"Children who are breast-fed have protection from acute ear infection, gastrointestinal infections, hospitalization for lower respiratory tract diseases in the first year, sudden infant death syndrome, and reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases, including asthma and obesity," Sharma said.

Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.